1. Field of the Invention
Utilization of metal scrap, especially presized scrap metal chips or the like of new or used metal, especially brass, aluminum, magnesium, titanium, as well as iron and steel, or an alloy thereof, or a metal for alloying one of said metals, by introduction of said metal scrap into a mass of molten metal of which they are formed or an alloy thereof or for the alloying of the same, and at or below the surface of the molten metal pool in the charge well of a metal-melting furnace. Introduction of metal scrap into the charge well of a metal-melting furnace by a method involving mass flow gravity feed. Apparatus suitable for use in the process.
2. Prior Art
The state of the art has been fully reviewed in my prior U.S. patents, namely, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,702,768, 4,710,126, 4,721,457, 4,872,907, and 5,211,744, the disclosures of which patents are incorporated herein by reference.
Although the state of the art has been considerably advanced by the procedures and apparatus of these prior U.S. patents, no acceptable method for the mass flow gravity feed of metal chips or scraps to the charge well of a metal-melting furnace, or apparatus suitable for carrying out such a method, has heretofore been available, so far as I am aware. Aside from the totally unsatisfactory early practice of simply throwing metal scraps into a molten metal pool in a charge well, which results in unsatisfactory and uneconomic processing due to unacceptable losses of metal due to oxidation, inadequate melting, settling out, and the like, alternative procedures and apparatus for carrying out such essential introduction of metal scrap have been relatively complex and time-consuming, and an effective method of gravity feeding metal scrap en masse into a molten metal pool in a charge well of a metal-melting furnace, whether a reverberatory furnace, a channel-type induction furnace, or a coreless-type induction furnace, with the highly-desirable advantages of simplicity, rapidity, and economy, but with retention of all of the advantages attributable to previous method and apparatus developments in the area, has simply not been available up to the time of the present invention.